The present invention relates to an apparatus for a method of automatically threading a yarn into a reed of a loom.
In the past it has been conventional practice that all work in the weaving process has been carried out manually. In particular, the threading of a yarn into a reed, that is, the so-called reeding has had to be carried out such that a yarn drawer is manually inserted through every reed mark or space between each of adjacent dents of a reed, and the yarn is drawn. Such an operation is troublesome, and further, since a second person is inevitably required for hooking a yarn onto the yarn drawer the work has had to be carried out by a pair of employees. Therefore, the operation has required a long time and a large number of persons, thereby contributing one of the causes which greatly lower production efficiency.
Efforts have been made to mechanize the above-mentioned operations in order to enhance productivity. For example, Japanese Patent Kokai Patent No. 61-42017 discloses a method in which a gear meshed with dents is rotated in order to thread a yarn while it is moved a distance corresponding to one reed mark. However, this method is likely to damage dents and can hardly be applied to a fine reed. Further, the gear has to be replaced with another one each time when the reed is changed. Accordingly, this has led to a problem of unsatisfactory workability. Further, a method in which a yarn is blown by an air stream so as to be drawn into the reed has been proposed. Although this method can be applied to a small diameter yarn such as multifilament or staple with no problems, this method cannot be practically applied to the case of monofilament having, in particular, a large diameter since such monofilament are relatively hard so that a yarn cannot be smoothly blown. This raises a practical problem. Moreover, such a reeding machine requires removal of a reed and installation of an extremely complicated device during the installation of the loom, and accordingly, the preliminary preparations require a long time.